In communication networks, voice messaging services provide subscribers with a recording of missed calls as well as call information which may be utilized to preview saved messages or later search for specific messages in a network voicemail box. In addition to “audio only” voice messaging services, which provide users with a message waiting light as a visual alert of received messages, multimodal (i.e., audio and visual) voice messaging services provide subscribers with a visual alert graphic or icon in addition to the visual delivery of caller identification, time called, and length of call information associated with the calling party leaving the message.
Current voice messaging services however, suffer from a number of drawbacks. For example, one drawback associated with audio only voice messaging services is that they require subscribers to listen to each call in the order received. Furthermore, subscribers to both audio only and multimodal messaging services must listen to each call to understand the content of the message and manually take action after reviewing or listening to each call. Thus, if a number of calls are received, they all must be reviewed regardless of their importance to the called party. Another drawback associated with current voice messaging services is that messages stored in a database can only be queried by caller name, phone number, or a keyword manually annotated to the message when it is reviewed.